2009 Skillfair Fee Survey - Full Results
Skillfair Consultancy Fee Survey 2009
In a difficult economic climate many businesses feel pressured to reduce prices, although this is not always the right response to poor sales figures. For consultants and freelancers, who generally have minimal overheads and no stock to pay for, it can be very difficult to calculate the right price for the service provided. Working in isolation from other consultants can also mean that consultants lack a benchmark to support their position and this contributes to the pressure many feel.
2009 Fee Rates 7.5% Up
Skillfair’s annual fee survey aims to provide just such a benchmark, allowing both clients and consultants to have a realistic view of market rates for different services and specialisms.
This year’s survey was sent to over 9000 consultants, interims, freelancers and contractors on the Skillfair database and attracted well over 500 responses. As well as usual breakdown by skill area, we asked consultants to identify the geographical area of the majority of their clients and also to break down their work between private sector, public sector and 3rd sector.
The average fee rate charged by our respondents was £602 – this is actually somewhat higher than the final figure for 2008 of £560 – which seems a surprising result given the volume of new entrants to self-employment and the general downturn in the economy. One feature of Skillfair’s membership that may explain the rise, and indeed the general positive outlook taken by our respondents, is that the majority of them (67%) get most of their work directly from clients rather than relying on agencies. Consultants working directly for clients are generally able to charge slightly higher rates and building a strong relationship with their customers allows them to be more confident about future work and the value that they provide.
Fees by Specialism
The pecking order of specialism was largely unchanged compared to 2008, and indeed 2007 - Change Management heads the table as usual with the lower end of the fee scale being populated by specialism more widely required in the public and third sector, such as Environmental and Regeneration consultancy.
| Sector |
Day Rate |
| Change Management |
809 |
| Supply Chain/Logistics |
767 |
| IT Management |
746 |
| Coaching |
712 |
| Financial |
700 |
| Management Consultancy |
666 |
| Human Resources |
643 |
| Training |
621 |
| Project Management |
612 |
| Business Advice/Development |
578 |
| Public Relations |
577 |
| IT Solutions |
569 |
| Market Research |
552 |
| Engineering |
535 |
| Marketing |
527 |
| Regeneration |
511 |
| Research |
487 |
| Graphic Design |
478 |
| Environment |
425 |
| Writing or Editorial |
347 |
In part the recession may be responsible for the continued strength of fees in Change Management and Management Consultancy, mergers, buyouts and reorganisations are regular occurrences in a difficult market and companies need help dealing with the consequences of such major changes in their structure.
Public or Private?
As expected there are marked differences in rates between sectors, with the private sector providing the richest pickings, although anecdotal evidence from our consultants suggests that contracts are becoming more difficult to win in all areas so downward pressure may become more apparent as the year goes on.
| Sector |
2008 |
2009 |
| Private |
656 |
692 |
| Public |
574 |
622 |
| 3rd |
450 |
492 |
Regional Variations
Our final area of interest was geographical location – although a substantial proportion, nearly a third, of our respondents work ‘All over the UK’. An increased proportion this year cited Europe or Other as their main region, a total of 13%, which suggests that consultants are looking even further afield for opportunities than before.
| Region |
Day Rate |
| South West |
447 |
| East Midlands |
453 |
| North East |
455 |
| West Midlands |
465 |
| Wales |
478 |
| Scotland |
515 |
| North West |
537 |
| East Anglia |
537 |
| UK Average |
602 |
| Other |
645 |
| All over UK |
664 |
| South East |
667 |
| London |
685 |
| Europe |
762 |
The regional league table is largely unchanged, although London has moved from a relatively low position last year to what seems a more logical position well above the national average. This may well be due to a change in the geographical distribution of our members giving a more realistic representation for London in this year’s survey.
How do these results help me?
There’s no doubt that redundancy is throwing more experienced business people into the consultancy market, and there are some who are willing to work for very low rates – either in desperation or because they feel the need to ‘do something’ even if self-employment isn’t their long term plan. Many clients also have a distorted view of the pay earned by consultants – it’s not uncommon for them to multiply your fee rate by 200 to get a ‘salary’, happily ignoring the fact that few consultants work that many days a year and of course, paid holidays, sick pay, health insurance and company pensions are a distant memory for most of us.
What helps most is to concentrate on the value that you or your company will bring to the client, whether that’s in cost savings or increased revenue. If you can price a project rather than quoting a day rate that will also help, and you can use the fee data we’ve provided to make sure that you get the going rate for your expertise.